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As Big Business has used campaign cash to secure more control over politics, elected officials have been approving more and more taxpayer subsidies for corporations.

Earlier this month, billionaire Charles Koch had a surprising message: In a speech to his fellow conservatives, he said politicians must end taxpayer-funded subsidies and preferential treatment for corporations.

Why is this surprising? Because the demand came from an industrialist whose company and corporate subsidiaries have raked in tens of millions of dollars worth of such subsidies.

“Where I believe we need to start in reforming welfare is eliminating welfare for the wealthy,” said Koch, who, along with his brother David, is among the biggest financiers of conservative political causes. “This means stopping the subsidies, mandates and preferences for business that enrich the haves at the expense of the have nots.”

Yet, in the last 15 years, Koch's firm Koch Industries and its subsidiaries have secured government subsidies worth more than $166 million, according to data compiled by the watchdog group Good Jobs First. The group says since 1990, Koch-owned properties have received 191 separate subsidies worth a total of $195 million.

Koch Industries and its subsidiaries, which are a privately held, are involved in everything from oil refining to manufacturing to high finance. In 2012, Charles Koch issued a similar jeremiad against government-sponsored subsidies for corporations. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, he said, “We are on dangerous terrain when government picks winners and losers in the economy by subsidizing favored products and industries.” In his essay, he specifically derided tax credits—yet even after the op-ed, Koch-owned properties accepted more than $77 million worth of such taxpayer-funded preferences from governments, according to Good Jobs First.

Among the biggest subsidies received by Koch-owned companies was a $62 million Louisiana property tax abatement for Georgia Pacific—a paper and chemical conglomerate that was acquired by Koch Industries in 2005. Georgia Pacific also received a separate $11 million tax credit from Louisiana in 2014 to upgrade its facilities.

Since 2007, Good Jobs First says Koch Industries itself has received more than $20 million in subsidies through an Oklahoma program designed to incentivize investment and job creation. Oklahoma’s government website lists more than $28 million in such tax credits to the firm and its subsidiaries.

Koch, it should be noted, is not like other top executives of major corporations. His company is not publicly traded—it is privately held, with most of the company owned by him and his brother, David. That means the Kochs could reject subsidies and not have to justify the move to hordes of shareholders. Instead, though, they have accepted the government support, even as they fund conservative campaigns that deride the influence of government on the economy.

Of course, Koch’s speech certainly did identify a growing trend in America. As Big Business has used campaign cash to secure more control over politics, elected officials have been approving more and more taxpayer subsidies for corporations. Conservative opposition to those expenditures will no doubt be key to reining them in.

However, it is difficult to believe that the head of a company that has benefited from so much taxpayer support is really going to use his political power to end the largesse. In other words: The message may be compelling, but the messenger is not particularly credible.

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Just like farmers and ranchers who don't need it but take it when the government doles it out. I't legal, so why not? But the truth is, in a free market society cooperate welfare should be stopped. Should giving farmers, ranchers and food processors money they don't need. Are they not businesses also?

Posted by hgolden on 2015-11-20 07:08:50

I don't see any hypocrisy in their wanting to end corporate welfare but still taking some of it. You don't just go out and commit corporate suicide while all their competitors are raking it in. You were paying attention to all the billions dumped down the green energy hole right? And you could pull up plenty of so called progressive companies and heads of corporations who say the same thing while continuing to cash those gubmint checks. It is like all the progressive politicians who constantly rail about all the money in politics but you don't see them turning away the money do you. I agree the government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. In the end it is the voters who need to make it happen. And that does not mean just taking the money from some sectors and just handing it to some other favored sector.

Posted by RS on 2015-08-19 07:00:38

That means that Herbert Hoover and Franklin DeLano Roosevelt were really Republicans.

Posted by JoeThePimpernel on 2015-08-18 20:27:38

You Left-wing loons will say anything. And steal anything.

Posted by JoeThePimpernel on 2015-08-18 20:23:05

You said it. Thank you for that.

Posted by acme on 2015-08-18 19:10:17

All this sudden rash of feel-good news about the increasingly warm and fuzzy Koch brothers tells me is that they have finally broken down and hired a PR Director.

Now I suppose you're going to tell me that the Democrat party of the KKK and carpetbaggers transmogrified into the Republican party of today and that the Republican party of Abraham Lincoln transmogrified into the Democrat party of today, right?

Posted by JoeThePimpernel on 2015-08-15 22:33:44

ah yes, regurgitating the soros trope at any mention of the kochs. nice false equivalency, how tiresomely cliche and intellectually lazy.

Posted by PeazantBoy on 2015-08-15 22:30:24

Don't you hate it when the people we love to hate, say something we agree with?... I hate THAT!

Posted by Mugsy DaPoodle on 2015-08-15 19:14:36

Come to show your ignorance again? Nice!

Posted by dave on 2015-08-15 14:10:11

Too bad George Soros doesn't agree.

Posted by JoeThePimpernel on 2015-08-14 22:46:18

Maybe one of the old boys got wind of Sarah Silverman's opener for Bernie Sanders, at the recent LA rally, and got a sudden glimpse of self. Perhaps he'll cast off his royal robes and go live under a tree for a while.